Saturday, November 9, 2013

An undercover investigation by Danish and Chinese Labor watchdogs found that Chinese workers at Dell factories are being forced to work 7-day, 74-hour weeks under horrific conditions for as little as nearly $1 an hour.

The Verge reports that the investigations were carried out at the MSI factory in Shenzhen city, the Mingshou factory in Suzhou city and the Hipro Electronics and Taida Electronicsfactories both in Dongguan city, Guangdong province.

At the Mingshuo factory, the watchdogs found just one toilet for every 55 workers, one shower room for every 90 workers and 272 workers having to share one, coin-operated washing machine.

The workers are constantly told to work overtime for up to four hours per day and are fined if they make any mistakes.

At the factories in the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu, workers are forced to breathe chemical fumes all day. They also suffer skin rashes from direct contact with the electronics.

A spokesman for DanWatch, the Denmark-based independent watchdog that carried out the investigation with China Labor Watch, said the workers’ pay fell well below the Chinese minimum wage, The Verge reports.

One worker, 18-year-old Zhao Lily, told investigators that she and her fellow workers have to stand up for an entire 12-hour shift and that they must ask permission to sit down.

Eva Hesse Lundström, editor of DanWatch, said:

“When companies compete on supplying computers in the cheapest way possible, and when our public buyers aim for the cheapest wares on the market, a high human cost is paid.”

“Our research shows that the conditions at Dell’s suppliers violate ILO conventions and Chinese labor law as well as Dells own policy.”

Dell released a statement saying that the company is in the process of auditing three of the four factories involved and will take action to fix the poor working conditions.

From the statement:

“Dell employs high standards for workplace conditions and safety in our facilities and we expect our supplier partners to employ the same high standards.”

“It is also our policy to thoroughly investigate and take appropriate action regarding any reports of poor working conditions in our supply chain.”